Hurt your feelings or upset your plans.
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Put your nose out of joint
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My folks used "collary wobbles" to mean stomach upset, as in, e.g., "If you eat all that fresh fruit (several apples, pears, oranges, etc.), you get the collary wobbles." I am 89…
In the USA, I once heard a slang noun obviously derived from "harum-scarum": "hurmer-skurmer", meaning a reckless man.
I learned over 50 years ago in school that "beyond the pale" referred to the "line" or boundary the Roman army set up between British and Scottish regions at the time of…
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From the Phrase Finder Digest
- Four Christmas Phrases Everyone Repeats Have A Documented Paper Trail
Shops start playing carols and stacking tins of biscuits weeks before December even arrives, which makes Christmas the longest-running seasonal hook of the year. The phrases that travel with it, from a bishop's 1534 letter to a 1977 political jibe, have a better paper trail than most people assume.
21 October 2026
- Old Soldiers Never Die: The Song Behind The Saying
Remembrance Sunday brings out a handful of phrases we repeat without thinking about where they came from. Two are older than any war fought in living memory, and one has a history most people get wrong.
14 October 2026
Based on Google Books usage over the last ~25 years. Refreshes each build.
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- MeaningClothes maketh the manThe way a person dresses shapes how others judge their character, status or worth.
- MeaningDo birdTo serve a prison sentence.
- MeaningThere's many a good tune played on an old pianoAn older person or thing can still perform just as well as a younger one.
- MeaningWould you buy a used car from this man?A rhetorical question used to cast doubt on someone's honesty, especially a politician, by comparing them to the stereotypically untrustworthy used-car salesman.
- MeaningBird brainedDescribes someone as silly, foolish, or scatterbrained, as though their head held nothing more than a bird's tiny brain.
- MeaningChildren, one is one, two is fun, three is a house fullOne child is manageable, two children is enjoyable, but a third child makes the household feel full to bursting.
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Phrases.org.uk has been documenting the meaning and origin of phrases, sayings and idioms since 1997. Every entry is researched and written by Gary Martin, with citations to the earliest printed use we can find.
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